conferences

Imagine there's no PowerPointIt's easy if you tryNo screens before usNo piles of printed slidesImagine all the people focusing on you Imagine there's no clip artIt isn't hard to doNothing clichéd or stupidNo dumb cartoonsImagine all the people focusing on you You, you may sayI'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only oneI hope some […]

A few years back, a worker bee got fed up in corporate America, quit her job, became an entrepreneur and consultant, and later on wrote a direct letter to CEOs everywhere, telling them in no uncertain terms how badly they were living up to the ideals of leadership, caring for their people, providing meaningful work […]

Let’s talk about the marketing materials you need to develop a paid public speaking career. There are a few essentials: a DVD, a website, a book, a one-sheet. And a number of should-haves: a social media presence, a blog, a press kit, handouts, YouTube videos. And after that, the only limit is your imagination. The […]

Conferences ask a lot of passivity from their audiences – audiences made up of people who are normally quite active. The traditional model involves sitting in a seat for 2 or 3 days, occasionally allowed to ask questions, but basically only invited out of the seat for meal and bathroom breaks. Any networking that’s […]

Think about all the people, products, and processes that have to work well in order for you to have a good experience at a conference. From the flight (or drive) there, to the check-in at the hotel, to your first impression of the room, to the registration desk for the event, to the first meal, […]

I talked with author, speaker, and former Yahoo! executive Tim Sanders recently about the future and green conferences. Tim is the author most recently of Saving the World at Work, as well as two highly regarded earlier books, Love is the Killer App and The Likeability Factor. If you’ve never seen Tim speak, catch […]

It took a year for the conference world (and the traveling public) to recover from 9/11. How long will it take for conferences and meetings to rebound from the financial meltdown of Fall 2008? In a way, the comparison is misleading; what we’re in now is a recession much like, the experts say, the 1991-92 […]

I’m starting a series of blogs on the future of conferences. Last year was a difficult one for the meetings and conferences industry, and as we start another year, it’s good to take stock. What is the state of conferences today? What does the future hold? What should the industry be doing in order […]